a whole day, from start to finish

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts! When I reviewed survey results earlier this week – I look at them all year, so thank you so much to those of you who chimed in! I truly value all of your feedback and refer back to it often – there were a lot of requests for more posts like this. We had a day this week that was pretty *normal* (what does that even mean?) and I remembered to snap some pics, so here we go!

7:15: I wake up feeling EXTREMELY rested. I reach down for my phone and see that it’s 7:15… an entire hour after I had set my alarm to go off. I had set it for “Every Saturday” so it didn’t go off and I just enjoyed a nice little slumber. We have exactly 30 minutes before we have to be out the door, so I throw on a lulu top and some leggings, some sneakers, run a brush through my hair, and blitz downstairs. The girls are hanging out on the couch watching a show, so I put their piles of clothes next to them to get dressed (feeling very thankful I put out their outfits the night before) and make them a quick breakfast. They have hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, and toast, and I put their lunches into their backpacks, fill water bottles, do their hair, make sure they have their teeth brushed, put sunscreen on them, and we’re out the door. 99% of the time, I make Bulletproof Decaf coffee in my Yeti mug to take with us, but I’m out of coffee. 

8:50: I’m done with school drop-offs, so I head to the Starbucks at the grocery store to grab a coffee. Decaf almond milk latte with 1 pump of vanilla.

9:10 Back at home, and I put some sourdough into the oven that I prepped the night before. While the first loaf is baking, I finishing writing my blog post for that day and hit publish before putting the second loaf into the oven. I know it’s kind of a busy day, which works out well since it’s my rest day from the gym. While the second loaf is in the oven, I head upstairs for 7 minutes of meditation, a quick journal exercise, and do some easy stretches and mobility work.

10:20 Bread is done, so I cut a couple of slices for myself and make breakfast: 6 scrambled liquid egg whites, 1 whole egg, sautéed spinach, nutritional yeast, and bread with Kite Hill everything cream cheese spread and Everything But the Bagel seasoning from Trader Joe’s + a side of strawberries.

In between eating, I run the eufy (still my favorite ever), clean up the kitchen from the girls’ breakfast and the bread adventures, throw some laundry into the washer, make the beds, and spray down the countertops. I also take my supplements and fill up my giant water bottle to take for the day’s adventures.

10:50 I pick up Nani to go visit Baby August! She hadn’t met him yet, and I wanted to take Kyle and Meg some bread, so it was perfect timing. I swoop Nani, and we have a wonderful visit with Kyle, Meg, EJ, and August. 

How perfect are his little toes???

I hang out outside playing games with EJ and get to hold sweet August again, and we have a lovely visit with them. 

12:30 I’m back from picking up P, and I grab her a quick snack (a Perfect bar and a sliced apple). We also play dolls and do a puzzle in the playroom for a bit. She settles down to watch a show – we try to let the girls stick to a “2 shows per day” rule – and I make myself some lunch and answer a couple of quick emails. I eat lunch outside while she swings on the swing set.

This is a frozen chicken burger from Whole Foods with Sir Kensington’s Mayo, roasted red bell pepper, spinach, mustard, on a brown rice tortilla. Notice the bite marks on the outside of the tortilla, courtesy of P, haha.

1:30 We take the dogs for a walk together around the neighborhood. The weather is so gorgeous and P is officially a pro dog walker. It’s crazy to think of how many walks I spent with her in the Ergo or in the stroller and now here she is, walking a dog completely by herself. 

I think it’s so cute that Bella lets her hold her, too. She doesn’t mind it at all. 

I switch the laundry out, and then P helps me make some cookie dough. I’ve been using this recipe and it’s INSANE (I just make the cookies smaller than the recipe suggests and skip the walnuts). 

I wish I could say I just had this tiny bit of cookie dough, but let’s be real here. After scooping spoonfuls onto the cookie sheets, I cleaned the bowl with a spoon. 😉 SO good.

After baking the cookies, we let them cool and head out to pick up Liv. 

3:15 We’re back home from picking up Liv. I make the girls a snack plate (bell pepper, carrots, hummus, pepperoni, cheese, and crackers) and they eat it outside playing while I make some dinner to take to Kyle and Meg’s house. While I’m cooking, I have a Larabar and some tea with collagen.

I put rice into the Instant Pot, and chop a quick Greek salad (romaine, spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, roasted red pepper, kalamata olives, and feta), then start on the Chicken Parmesan. Enchiladas are my go-to baby meal, but since I made them enchiladas a couple of weeks ago, I want to switch it up. I make doubles of everything and wrap it in the fridge since that will be the girls’ dinner that night, too. 

4:45 Everything is packed up and ready to go,

so we drive down to Kyle and Meg’s. The Pilot is there waiting for us, snuggling with August. <3

I watch the little cousins play outside while Kyle and Meg eat and the Pilot holds August. After a little while, we switch out. Usually we would be driving to gymnastics, but I let the girls skip class since they hadn’t met the baby yet. They loved holding their new little cousin. It’s hard to believe that he’ll be running around with all of them before we know it!

6:00 We’re back at home, so I make the girls their dinner plates, switch the dishes out, and clean up from the enormous mess I made baking cookies and frying chicken. Usually we would just all eat together, but I asked our babysitter to come over that night. (It wasn’t the best planning on my part. Usually when the Pilot and I go out, I make the girls something super easy, like meatballs, pasta, and some chopped fruit or sautéed veggies on the side.) I set out the girls’ pajamas and toothbrushes, and then we get ready to go. 🙂

7:00 Nerd date! The Pilot and I have a date once a week, and quite often they’re something we call “nerd dates.” Basically, we’ll grab a quick snack or glass of wine somewhere, and then head to a coffee shop to catch up on work stuff. We sit there with our computers and headphones on like nerds, but at least we’re together. 

We have poke bowls and wine at Ra, and then go to Cartel for tea and nerd time. He’s studying like crazy for airline interviews, and I have a ton of blog stuff to catch up on, especially since I didn’t spend much time working during the day. (Usually when the girls are at school, I blitz on as much work stuff as possible!)

9:30 We’re back home! The Pilot packs Livi’s lunch for the next day – P only stays for lunch at preschool a couple of times each week – and I head upstairs to fold laundry. I used to go to bed super late – easily midnight or 1am – but ever since the girls have been going to sleep at a normal time and staying in their beds (!!!) I’ve felt like I can go to sleep much earlier. I’m tired now by about 10, and ready to wake up around 6 most days. It’s amazing to meditate a little, catch up on work, or even take a Peloton class before we start on the morning chaos. I set out the girls outfits for the next day, set out my clothes and fill up a water bottle for a morning Peloton class, and crawl into bed to read for a few minutes until my eyes start to droop. 

10:15 Bed.. and ready to do it all over again.